Tucan Travel Part One

Sorry for the long delay between post for those few loyal readers, but as one of my travel buddies pointed out, Em and I are spending far too much time writing our novel length blogs and missing out on the excitement of the countries that we're supposed to be exploring. So here's the long awaited middle to this year's great adventure (I was going to post the conclusion in this episode too, but I realised that this was getting really really long, even by my standards, so it's going to be broken up into two sections....hopefully I'll finish the second section and have it posted within the next week).

Lima Part Deux

My last entry left off with me sitting in a quaint hostel in Huarez waiting out the rain and the time till our night bus left for Lima.

We arrived in Lima a little after 7 in the morning and groggily hailed a taxi to take us to our hotel, The Muary. The Muary turned out to be a pretty swanky hotel with nice views, a central location downtown, hot water, and 24 hour service. They even had a door man that opened the door for you everything you wanted out or in. In addition to all of this glamor, they have a slight electrical problem.

Em and I get our room key which happens to be 513 and stroll to the elevator to get there. As we exit the elevator and head down the hall we notice that the lights only extend halfway down the hallway and after that it's like something from a horror film where you're waiting for something to come from the darkness and attack you. Besides noted this lack of light and seeing that our room is right at the cusp where the hallway goes from light to dark, we don't much care about this lack of lighting.

It's not until we've dumped our stuff in the hotel room and Em is thrown everything out of her backpack in search of shower materials that we realize there is a side-effect to the Red Rum hallway...the lack of electricity in our room. This doesn't bode well for Em and the shower seeing as it would be pitch black in the bathroom without a light.

So I head down to the front desk laughing at Em's predicament (cause at this point I just want to go back to sleep and don't much care about lights) and tell them in my halting Spanish that there is not electricity in our room. Some miming and confusion later the lady tells me she'll send someone up to look at the problem. So I return to relate this development to Em, who has gathered that the shower is now some time away.

About 5 minutes later a bell boy comes up, sees us in the doorway, sees the lack of light at the end of the hallway, smiles and rushes to the fuse box. The sound of fuses being thrown is heard, along with "Hay" (which means "is there?"). I reply, "No hay," and the bell boy smiles again as he runs past us saying he'll be back. A few more minutes and the bell boy returns with another smaller man, who both nervously smile and rush down the darkened hallway again.

We repeat our "Hay," "No Hay" dialog and then the phone rings in the room. I answer it and am asked whether we want to change rooms. "Of course." What I don't get is how the phone can work in the room if nothing else electrical does. So a few minutes later we are moved three doors down the hallway (whose lights they did manage to get on) and shown to a room with electricity (to the bell boy's relief). Em got her shower and I got my nap.

A few hours later, we left the hotel in search of exploration and Arroz con Leche (rice pudding basically) which Em was craving. We didn't find the arroz con leche, but we did find authentic Chinatown. That was exciting, they even had bubble tea there, which I really wanted but was too full from lunch to eat... next time.

At four there was a meet and greet with the rest of the Tucan people and a tour of the city with our representative, Miriam. Here we meet our travel partners for the next two weeks. Within the first 30 seconds I started talking to a girl named Hein, who became pretty much Em and my's favorite person on the trip. We all connected really well and ended up hanging out a lot together (this is not to say that we didn't like or hang out with the other travels...cause we did).

The tour pretty much covered ground that we'd seen the last time we were in Lima and earlier in the day, but it was nice to have the history that went along with it. We also got to try Piccarones which are like small fried donuts. They were made in a large vat of oil in the square of Saint Francisco's Church and took a few minutes since there were so many people that wanted them. So the man making them gave us a private tour of an old, burnt out church while we waited. That was pretty cool.

The rest of the evening went by pretty quickly as we explored some more, had dinner, and got more acquainted with our fellow travelers.

Amazonian

Bright and early the next morning we met in the lobby to await transport to the airport for our flight to Puerto Maldonado, way station for the Amazon Jungle. The transport never showed and another transport was called. This lead to the quintessential race through the airport, bags strapped to our backs, praying that the plane wouldn't leave without us. We were too late to check our luggage so everyone has to take their large backpacks as carry-ons, which resulted in us all losing our knives at the security check and pissing off everyone on the plane as we banged into them with our backs and threw other people's belongings around trying to rearrange the overhead compartments. One of the other passengers actually got so annoyed that he grabbed my bag and another girl's and found them homes.

Despite the initial chaos we arrived in Puerto Maldonado on time and met up with the other half of our tour group (they had been traveling for a week already in Arequipa and Nazca and other southern cities that we weren't going to have the time to visit).

From the airport we were loaded into a mini-bus, introduced to our jungle guides and then driven to the main office for the Explorer's Inn Jungle camp where we could drop off our big backpacks (there turned out to be a bunch of overnight excursions where you were only allowed a small backpack and since Em and I hadn't known this we were know as the bag people since we used pilfered plastic shopping bags...hey whatever works right?).

After relieving ourselves of our large bags, we headed to the market where our local guides broke us into two groups and showed us the different types of foods that were native to this area. They had something like 40 different types of bananas, papayas that were about 10 pounds each, starfruit, a fruit from the tomato family that tasted like nothing else I've every had, and the best two things...Brazilian nuts and coconut balls. I ended up buying a container of the Brazilian nuts covered in sugar and and another container of coconut balls. We wandered the market for a little longer and then got back on the mini-bus for an hour ride to the river. To get to the Jungle camp was like something out of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, except that it was planes, automobiles, and boats.

The boat ride was fantastic. We got to spend an hour and a half in a motorized type canoe traveling into the heart of the Amazon Jungle. How cool is that? It was beautiful, lush and green, with tons of different animals all around...we even saw a cayman or two (which are related to the alligator and crocodile family). Since we were entering the Tambopata-Candamo Reserve Zone, we had to register at this way station. We got a cool stamp in our passport out of it.

The camp was like something out of a picturesque postcard. We had a bamboo and wooden walkway that lead from the dock to the main campsite (after you climbed the huge hill), which consisted of a soccer field, a dining hall/research library, and multiple cabins. All of the cabins contained beds, mosquito netting (a must), a bathroom, and candles cause the only electricity in the whole camp was in the dining hall. It was all very quaint and comfortable and put you in a easy-going and peaceful mood from the get go. I think that if I had to pick one place from this trip that I liked the most, it would be a toss up between the Jungle and Cusco (which I'll expand upon later).

After a refreshing drink, more introductions to other staff members, and a few minutes to drop our stuff off and look around, we headed out on a short hike to the sunset spot to watch the colors blend and disappear into night. From there we headed on a longer, night hike. This was cool. We walked as silently as city folk can (about as loud as a stampede of spooked elephants) through trails that only our guide could see and scouted the vegetation for nocturnal life. There were these distance markers that consisted of poles placed in the ground that made perfect houses for tiny frogs. There were one or two living in each pole (which probably only had a circumference of an inch) and they were really cute. We also saw stick bugs (that like their name suggests, look like sticks or twigs), beetles, lots of ants (they have so many types, including fire ants, and one that will paralyze you for a bit if you get bitten....this led to a lot of looking on the ground with flashlights to make sure you weren't stepping in a nest of them. We did find one nest and a quarter mile line of worker ants exuding from it), spiders, and a number of other nocturnal creatures. It's pretty cool what comes out in the dark.

The next morning we rose early (before the sun...I think around 4am) and set out for a 5km (approx. 3 mi) hike to Lake Sachavacayoc. Once again we broke into groups and followed our guide on paths that only she knew the destinations of. We hiked, scouted for more creatures (this time the diurnal ones), and got to know each other better. It was a nice hike and you didn't realise that you were going that far cause it was just so beautiful.

Then end result is that 3 hours give or take later, we popped out at a bird watching hut on the lake. most of the lake is in a protected region so you're only allowed to explore some of it. The other section is currently the mating and living space for otters and off limits to the general public and inquisitive tourists.

We spent a little bit of time in the bird hutch feeding our snacks to the piranhas in the water (no swimming in this lake) and then headed out in joint canoes to explore the lake and look for a multitude of different birds. There was one set of birds that we saw that remind me of dodos, they were brown with colorful plumes on their heads and had small heads and long necks (sorry I don't know what they're really called).

A few hours later we headed back to camp to make it in time for a much deserved lunch and then a few hours of down time. In the afternoon, Em, Hein, and I challenged the Camp staff to a soccer game. They ran circles around us, we realized how our of shape we were, but it was all a lot of fun and it entertained the rest of our tour group who cheered from the sidelines.

Sometime during the game, Em lost our room key, so we ended homeless, flashlightless, and showerless for the rest of the evening until we could convince the laughing staff to give us a spare key.

After dinner, everyone in the camp wandered back down to the boat docks to explore the river at night in a quest for caymans (the alligator relatives). Pretty much this required one guide to shine a large and powerful flashlight across all the banks looking for a red reflection from the animals' eyes. Then she'd signal the boat captain to take us closer to that shore where everyone would diligently snap photographs that they will later look at and wonder what the pitch black photo was supposed to represent. Except for the first cayman that we saw moon bathing itself on a sandy bank, all the rest of the caymans were just an eye here and an eye there. Most of the people on the boat didn't really know if there was really anything there or whether the guide was making it all up.

The next morning we rose early and bid a farewell to our new home. It was a wonderful place, but there was much more to see and so little time.

Cusco and the Sacred Valley

My tied favorite place in all of Peru is Cuzco (tied with the Jungle). Cusco was known to the Incas as the "Navel of the World," and is currently a thriving tourist destination built in European colonial style upon the remains of the once great Inca empire. One of the Inca's largest and most impressive sites, Sacsayhuaman (pronounced Sac-say-woman), stands guard on the hill above the city and hosts daily throngs of tourists come to explore its mysteries.

Unlike the rest of Peru, you can really see the influence of the Spaniards in Cusco, as you walk the cobble stoned streets and peer out across the red tiled roofs (that are a requirement for everyone to kept the atmosphere) from the various hills that flow from the city in all different directions. Many times as I walked these various streets over the five days that I stayed here, I had trouble remembering whether I was still in Peru or whether I've actually flown to Europe and just blanked the plane ride from my memory.

Em, myself, Jaime (a Kiwi), and the two older couples (Joyce and Gary and Joan and Dale) (both from Canada) that had come on the trip all decided not to hike either the Inca Trail (the famous 39 km trek that deposits you at the Sun Gate of Manchu Picchu in time for the sun to glisten on the sight below) or the Lares Trek (a slightly shorter and much less crowded trek that leaves you in the town below Manchu Picchu) and therefore had another 2 days to explore Cusco and the Sacred Valley and one day to explore Aguas Caliente, that the hikers didn't have.

Em, Jamie, Joyce, Gary, and I spent one of these days on a river rafting trip down the Urubamba River. We met bright and early with ten other adventure seekers and set out for a relatively calm stretch of the river about two hours outside Cusco, in the heart of the Sacred Valley.

The tour operator outfitted us all with seal suits, Em's was slightly too small and well worn in to the point that you could see sections of her striped bikini poking through; parachute looking windbreakers (remember the red, blue, and yellow parachutes from elementary school PE?); bright blue lifevests; and Tonka-toy orange hard hats (that wouldn't save a stuffed animal from getting it's fur knocked out). Overall it was an entertaining picture to see us all decked out, especially since we were only going on 1 and 2 level rapids (and one 3). The water was nice and we amused ourselves with water attacks on other boats. There was one guide that was hellbent on attacking everyone and his crew would launch themselves on our rafts trying to knock its inhabitants into the water. It was all very fun.

The second free day in Cusco, Em and I decided to grab a tour of the Sacred Valley. You could spend weeks here just going from one site to another and hiking, but since we were in a very short time crunch, we took the pro-offered tour. This involved waking early to be ushered on to a tour bus that then circled the same square five times (each time stopping at the exact same spot to pick up another one or two people, why they couldn't have just stayed in that same spot for the half hour we were circling is a mystery to me). Oh and they picked us pick by asking for "Senor Robert." It took another three times of different people saying this to get through to them that I was NOT a boy. I know I dress like a boy for work and all, but come on!

Em and I turned out to be the only non-native Spanish speakers on this tour and had to constantly remind the guide to repeat what he'd said in English. To which we got a one or two sentence recap for every paragraph of information that he'd said in Spanish. I started listening to both explanations, hoping to fill in the gaps.

The tour visited two main archaeological sites: Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Pisac is situated on a gorge that controlled a strategic route connecting the Inca Empire with Paucartambo, on the borders of the eastern jungle. The site contains five different sections or sectors, all connected by a series of architectural and agricultural terraces (the Inca's were know for these terraces and they are seen in/at/and around all of their cities). We walked from on sector clear to the other sector, where we had a short amount of time to explore, before heading back to the bus and moving on. I would like to one day come back and more fully get to explore this site (along with the tons of other ones that I never got to see, or only scratched the surface on).

Ollantaytambo was built as an Inca administrative center rather than a town and is laid out in the form of a maize corn cob. While the initial site itself is large and impressive, the "ruined buildings" across the valley from it also attract one's attention. It's a toss up what these buildings were used for. Originally scholars believed that they were prisons (they're high up on the cliff with nothing much around them), this was later amended to universities (not sure where that idea came from), and lastly and most recently, the consensus is leaning towards granaries.

Aguas Calientes and Manchu Picchu

And now we're getting to the part of the trip that everyone has heard of (well at least the part that everyone should have heard of...and I will fault you if you're one of those that doesn't know).

A 4 hour train ride, leaving from Cusco at 7 am, deposited us in Aguas Caliente just in time for lunch. A note on the train, the backpackers train is not set up for comfort, each set of seats faces another, with about a foot and a half of space in the middle, so you get four hours to get cozy with a couple that you don't know and never really wanted to be playing footsie with, but at least the carriage staff flirting with everyone and entertaining you with their Pisco Sour making skills is entertaining. And it's probably the only train in the world that goes up a hill by leafing (go one way a bit, stop, reverse direction, go a bit, stop, repeat until you've made it up the hill). There isn't enough space to curve around in the same direction as most trains would do.

Aguas Calientes (Hot Waters) is also known as Manchu Picchu Pueblo and sits at the base of the mountains that hold the sacred city, that was once believed to be the lost city of Vilcabamba, the site of the Inca's l;ast refuge fro, the Spanish Conquistadors (this was later found to be Espiritu Pampa in the Amazon Jungle). The town is built on a hill and caters to the zillion odd tourists that flock to the majestic city everyday, and also the the alcoholic community as every restaurant on the hill offers 4 for 1 happy hours all day long. In addition to being the way station where one catches a bus to the site itself, Aguas Calientes is known for its natural hot springs that are captured in a series of cement pools. The townsfolk and its visitors trudge up the hill to sit in these brown, muddy, sulfuric waters and relieved their stresses. My only complaint is that the water was tepid instead of the scalding hot that I was hoping for.

Finally we arrive at that pivotal moment that you've all been waiting for when I intrigue (or bore) you with the details related to the past and present history of Manchu Picchu. Manchu Picchu means "Old or Ancient Mountain" and is the best preserved of the a series of agricultural centres that served Cusco in its prime. The city was concieved and built in the mid-fifteenth century by Emperor Pachacuti, the first to expand the empire beyond the Sacred Valley towards the forested gold-lands. The city was never discovered by the Spanish, but found in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham.

The site itself is huge (but still walkable) and also includes Wayna Picchu (Young Mountain), with is another attached mountian that leads to a smaller settlement. Wayna Picchu can only be climbed by 400 people a day, in two shifts (200 and 200). Therefore in order to get a ticket, Em and I, as well as Jamie, Ian (who had finished his Lares Trek and met back up with us), and the rest of the Tucan group that Ian had hiked the Lares Trek with, woke up at 4 am to make sure that we were first in line for the 5:30 am bus up to Manchu Picchu. The site itself opened at 6 am and our first look at the ancient site was blurred as we raced from on side to the other to make it to the ticket office for Wayna Picchu which opened at 7 am.

Once we'd recieved our tickets to hike, we slowly wandered back across the site to begin our guided tour. The Tour started at the Warden's House, which is the spot from which all the famous postcard layout pictures are taken. It's at the northern end of the site and overlooks everything. We all took our pictures and cursed the mist (that while making the site beautiful, obscured most of the architecture from the camera's lens). From the Warden's House we walked around everywhere. WE passed through the quarry, the various temples, the priest's house, the Palace, the dwellings, and viewed the terraces. The views from here are just fantastic. You can see so far (once the mist lifted) and it's all lush green and rich blues of the river at the base. I can see why the Inca's would have considered this to be sacred and choosen to built here.

After our tour, Em, Jamie, and I broke from the group and comenced our climb of Wayna Picchu, crusing the whole time and wondering what possessed us to want to climb a 1000 odd crooked stairs, 300 m straight up. But when we reached the summit and saw the view, we knew that it was all worth it. I suggest that those that come here attempt the trip (as long as you're at least moderately healthy).

And this is where I will leave off. The next and last entry for this trip will explore Puno, Lake Titicaca, and La Paz. Stay tuned and hopefully you got something out of this edition of the travel novel.